Naomi White still remembers her delight when she saw a barge full of books moving across the inlet to her village of Lax Kw’alaams, north of Prince Rupert.“It was amazing,” the First Nations librarian said.Six volunteers from Metro Vancouver helped haul in 14 pallets of books and library furniture so that about 150 school-age children in the small village, 1,000 kilometres north of Vancouver, would get the chance to enhance their literacy.“If you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to do anything,” White said, explaining how literacy is the key to more First Nations people advancing into higher education and holding down jobs in the trades, businesses and professions.
“We’re just so remote here, especially during COVID. Now we’re better able to foster the love of learning. And to pass on that reading is power. The more you know the better off you are,” said White, describing how many young people in the village are keen to learn about the larger world through the library.
